On this episode of Technology & Security, Dr Miah Hammond-Errey speaks with Professor Jon Whittle, founding CEO of Goldilocks AI and professor at the University of Melbourne's Institute for Digital Innovation and AI. With nearly 30 years in AI spanning a technical lead role at NASA, founding the National AI Centre, and five years leading CSIRO's Data61, Jon brings a long view and the practical experience of having worked on these questions from inside government, research, and industry. The conversation opens with what AI sovereignty actually means across the full stack, from data centres and foundation models through to inference, applications and responsible AI, and why focusing only on data storage creates a false sense of security.

The conversation moves to the economic and geopolitical case for Australia building its own foundation models, why the argument that we are too small and too far behind deserves more scrutiny, and how being cut off from models like Fable has made that conversation more urgent. Jon and Miah discuss the gap between personal productivity gains from AI and the organisational productivity gains that remain elusive, the dimensions that actually determine enterprise AI success (most of which have nothing to do with technology), and the leadership anti-patterns holding Australian companies back. This episode also covers the rise of Chinese models, the risk of ‘Uberization’ of the Australian economy, what meaningful AI oversight requires from directors and boards, and why the conversation Jon hopes we are not still having in five years is the one we are having right now. Professor Jon Whittle is founding CEO of Goldilocks AI, professor at the University of Melbourne, and author of AI for Business. He is a former director of CSIRO's Data61 and founder of the National AI Centre.

On this episode of Technology & Security, Dr Miah Hammond-Errey is joined by Nicolas Miailhe, expert at the intersections of AI Safety and governance. Velocity shock refers to the gap between how fast frontier AI is being deployed and how slowly the institutions designed to govern it are moving. This episode explores what meaningful sovereignty is and what it means across the AI stack, the reorganisation of alliances now two dominant AI powers have solidified, and what it means for middle powers including Australia, Canada and the EU.

The conversation covers why rigorous evaluation of frontier AI remains scientifically unsolved, why voluntary safety frameworks from labs are insufficient under competitive pressure and practical steps toward closing the technology use and governance gap. Nicolas Miailhe is co-founder of AI Safety Connect, CEO of Prism Eval, and former founding CEO of The Future Society. He is an AI expert for the OECD and UNESCO's AI ethics group.

Cybersecurity is often framed as a technology problem. Andrew Reeves argues it is fundamentally a human one. Dr Miah Hammond-Errey sits down with Dr Andrew Reeves, Deputy Director of UNSW's Institute for Cyber, registered organisational psychologist and cybersecurity leader, to examine what psychology reveals about attack, defence and victimhood in cybersecurity. From the power of cyber deception, to why security awareness training can backfire, to what cognitive load means for the people defending our networks, this is a conversation about the human factors that determine whether cybersecurity actually works.

Andrew and Miah discuss the collaborative research project between UNSW's Institute for Cyber and Strat Futures, mapping the cybersecurity implications of emerging technologies in Australia over the next two to five years. Andrew shares what the data is revealing about the convergence of AI, biotechnology and brain-computer interfaces, why the most critical developments will come from how technologies interact rather than any single breakthrough, and what the tension between sovereign capability and international collaboration means for Australian organisations. They also discuss cyber security lessons from the golden age of piracy, the psychology of leadership under fatigue, and what forest bathing has to do with making better decisions.

On this episode of Technology & Security, Dr Miah Hammond-Errey is joined by Aurélie Jacquet, Chair of Australia's ISO AI Standards Committee, OECD AI expert, and advisor to some of the world's most influential organisations. Deploying AI responsibly takes far more than a good policy and this episode examines what responsible implementation actually demands. This discussion draws on lessons from capital markets, privacy law, international standards work and fortune 500 companies. 

Aurélie brings rare breadth to questions that matter; how organisations can move from AI ethics commitments to genuine controls, why scaling without governance is scaling risk, and what the AI conversation Australia will regret not having had today. Aurélie Jacquet is the CEO of Ethical AI Consulting, Chair of Australia's ISO AI Standards Committee and an OECD AI expert.

In this episode of Technology & Security, Dr. Miah Hammond-Errey is joined by cyber security and governance leader Min Livanidis. They discuss what resilience really means in an AI-enabled environment and how to reframe the conversation: AI risk is often a governance question. From identity and access management to data controls and shared responsibility models, the fundamentals of cyber security remain vital. While new forms of AI introduce probabilistic and agentic risks that require different safety considerations, the scaffolding of resilience—clear governance, structured risk management and technical literacy—has not changed.

The conversation reinforces the need for fundamental security controls during technological acceleration. Most successful cyber incidents still exploit basic weaknesses, not advanced AI capabilities. At the same time, AI is amplifying both defensive tools and human vulnerabilities, particularly through scams, impersonation and disinformation. Great security is not expecting perfect human decision-making but designing systems that reduce cognitive load and embed security by design. Ultimately, resilience depends less on hype and more on discipline: clarity of purpose, investment in people, and the consistent application of fundamentals. Her start in intelligence gave Livanidis insight into elements of leadership including curiosity, diversity and how to create a tech capable workforce. 

Min Livanidis is a cyber security, risk, and governance expert, currently Chief Security Advisor for Public Sector at Microsoft, Chair of the UNSW Institute for Cyber External Advisory Board, Co-Chair of Home Affairs’ Resilience Expert Advisory Group, and a former intelligence officer with experience across government and industry.

Resources mentioned:
Journal Article: Big data, emerging technologies and the characteristics of ‘good intelligence’: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/figure/10.1080/02684527.2023.2287255 // https://miahhe.com/downloads 
Cognitive Edge podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/cfcd90d1

In this episode of Technology & Security, Dr Miah Hammond-Errey is joined by Major General Mick Ryan to examine how emerging technologies are reshaping war, alliances, and societies at a moment of profound global uncertainty. Ryan argues that the post-World War II order has ended, leaving democracies in an interregnum characterised by growing chaos. Against this backdrop, technology—from AI and autonomous systems to information and cognitive warfare—is not removing friction from conflict, but accelerating it, widening its surface area, and increasing the consequences of strategic misjudgement.

Drawing on his recent work, Ryan explores lessons from Ukraine as a laboratory for contemporary conflict, emphasising that the most transformative shift is not drones or AI, but the speed at which societies and institutions can learn and adapt. This episode examines the changing role of alliances, the tension between values and interests, the risks of over-reliance on technology without organisational reform, and the ethical limits of AI in decision-making. The conversation concludes with an assessment of national resilience—economic, cyber, physical, and societal—and the need for clearer public conversations about risk, preparedness, and the responsibilities of citizenship in an increasingly contested world.

Major General Mick Ryan (Ret’d) is a former senior Australian Army commander and leading analyst of war, strategy, and emerging technologies, currently a Senior Fellow at the Lowy Institute and Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

In this episode of the Technology & Security podcast, host Dr. Miah Hammond-Errey is joined by Kate Carruthers. Kate is currently the head of data analytics and AI at the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She shares her journey from defending Westfield against state and non-state cyber attacks to leading UNSW's enterprise data, AI, and cybersecurity efforts, including delivering the university's first production AI system in 2019 and re-architecting its cloud data platform for AI and ML. She notes boardrooms are evolving from basic cyber literacy to probing AI risks like models, data, and risk registers. 

Carruthers outlines some real-world examples, such as UNSW’s enterprise AI program, including a machine learning model that predicted which students were likely to fail a course, with 95%+ accuracy, so the university could design careful, humane intervention protocols to reduce self-harm risk. She argues that while frontier models like OpenAI and Gemini have a place, their compute costs, water intensity and general-purpose design make them poorly suited to some business problems, and that the future lies in smaller, industry-specific models trained on highly relevant data. The conversation covers the rise of agentic AI coding tools, the risk of deskilling junior developers, and the need for diverse, product-focused teams to translate technical systems into workable human processes.​

On security, she prioritizes CIA triad integrity over confidentiality, warning of data alterations in cars, medical devices, and government systems via poisoning or underinvestment in encryption. Carruthers urges Australian AI sovereignty—opting for open-source like Databricks over proprietary stacks—amid US-China model contrasts and outage risks from providers like AWS or CrowdStrike. Throughout, she encourages leaders not just to read about AI but to use multiple systems themselves, understand their limitations as probabilistic tools in deterministic business environments, and ground every deployment in clearly defined problems, ethics, and user needs.​

In this episode of the Technology & Security podcast, host Dr. Miah Hammond-Errey is joined by Professor Ganna Pogrebna. They explore the intersections of behavioural data science, AI, cybersecurity, and technology adoption. The discussion covers urban-rural technology divides and the dilemmas faced by small businesses using "off the shelf" AI tools. It explores Australia's global position in quantum algorithms and cybersecurity innovation and digital twins, showcasing their role in simulating complex systems in cybersecurity and even nuclear decision-making. 

This episode highlights the limits of machine learning for fighting misinformation, emphasising that humans still detect novel attacks better than algorithms. Ganna shares practical inclusion strategies that policy and industry leaders can adopt, such as "inclusion riders" in contracts to increase representation. The conversation closes on actionable ways to bridge the research-adoption gap, the evolving challenge of leading human–machine teams, and the enduring need for experimentation and resilience as technology, policy, and society evolve.​

Highlights 

🌏 Bridging urban–rural and global divides in technology use, access and security.

🛡️ Why digital twins are useful and how they can improve cybersecurity decision-making. 

🕵️‍♂️ Human intuition still outpaces AI for spotting new cyber threats.

⚖️ How business incentives and KPIS are still a leading method for behavioural change. 

🤖 Leadership now means leading people who are combinations of human–machine. 

💡 Co-design, not just adoption, drives effective technology and security tools.

In this episode of Technology & Security, host Dr. Miah Hammond-Errey is joined Dr Adrian De Grazia, Global Intelligence Lead at Pfizer. This episode explores counterfeit pharmaceuticals and the evolving landscape of forensic science. The conversation takes listeners inside global operations, including the technologies transforming supply chain integrity, collaboration with law enforcement, and the unique challenges of detecting and disrupting complex networks involved in medicine counterfeiting. It also explores the importance of data literacy for leaders, and the role of alliances in combating security threats at national and corporate levels. 

Listeners hear about innovative approaches to product integrity and authentication—from advanced packaging to real-time tracking—alongside reflections on emerging security risks linked to AI, chemical profiling, and supply chain vulnerabilities. Insightful examples, including Operation Pangea and Australia’s digital forensic strategy for foreign interference, highlight the real-world impact of science in protecting patients, supporting public safety, and fostering interdisciplinary cooperation at local and global scales.

Please note, while employed by Pfizer, the views shared by Dr De Grazia are his own, taken from studies, personal and professional experiences past and present.

Resources
https://www.pfizer.com/products/medicine-safety/counterfeiting 

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Gadigal people, and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge their continuing connection to land, sea and community, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Music by Dr Paul Mac and production by Elliott Brennan.

In this episode of the Technology & Security podcast, host Dr. Miah Hammond-Errey is joined by lawyer and digital rights activist, Lizzie O’Shea. This episode explores Australia’s technology debates from a security and legal lens—addressing copyright, creativity, AI, and the legal structures, including class action, that shape society and security. We discuss how so often in the AI discussion we are asked to make trade-offs about immense future potential with real present harms in the now. This episode breaks down why proposals to let large language models freely train on the copyrighted works of Australians have rattled artists, news media, and civil society. Lizzie explains the Productivity Commission’s push for a data mining exemption, unpacks strong community reaction, the distinction between fair use and fair dealing and highlights what’s at stake for creative industry sustainability and fair compensation in the digital age.

We also explore recent legal action against Google and Apple–in Australia–and  the breadth of big tech legal and enforcement action globally, and what this means. The episode also covers the changing nature of US and Chinese AI strategies and approaches to the Indo Pacific, as well as an increase in big tech spending in Australian policy and research landscape. We explore the vulnerability of allowing mass data collection, noting that while data minimisation, and prioritising strong cybersecurity are understood priorities we question whether they are they really supported by legislative regimes. We discuss the significance of incentivising feedback in AI systems to integrate them into businesses in productive ways and crafting successful narratives for cautious adoption of AI. Finally, we look at why litigation has become central to holding digital giants accountable, and how Australians’ blend of healthy scepticism and tech enthusiasm might finally force smarter AI regulation. The conversation highlights how quick fixes and premature adoption, risk deeper, lasting social harms and national security threats.

Resources mentioned in the recording:

·       Future Histories, What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us about Digital Technology, by Lizzie O’Shea, Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2020 Award. https://lizzieoshea.com/future-histories/

·       Burning Platforms podcast, https://percapita.org.au/podcasts/

·       Empire of AI by Karen Hao 

·       Digital Rights Watch https://digitalrightswatch.org.au

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Gadigal people, and we pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge their continuing connection to land, sea and community, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Thanks to the talents of those involved. Music by Dr Paul Mac and production by Elliott Brennan.